Borderlands' Pandora is a weird place, filled with slag-spewing skags, cyborg ninjas, sarcastic robots and psychotic midgets. After watching the first 30 minutes of Telltale Games' next series Tales from the Borderlands in an E3 demo, I think Pandora's about to get even weirder. But not because Telltale is introducing an alien zoo of new creatures rather, because the combination of Telltale storytelling and Gearbox insanity is 100% as bizarre as everyone thought it would be.

In established Telltale fashion, Tales will be a five-part episodic story. It runs on the same engine as The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and older Telltale adventures, with familiar dialogue choices (mapped to A, B, X, Y on a gamepad) and quicktime event action scenes. Unlike Telltale's two current series, though, there are few agonizing moral-based decisions to make on Pandora. Greed is expected with a side of slapstick, hold the logic.

As Telltale's president Kevin Bruner pointed out to me after my demo, Telltale's history is rooted in comedic games like Sam & Max and Strongbad. They can do funny. But the 30 minutes of Tales from the Borderlands didn't quite convince me that Telltale has Gearbox's sense of humor completely dialed in.

The surface-level elements are there. Characters are introduced with Borderlands' signature stylish freeze-frame and witty description. There are skags and bandits and cartoony cel-shaded wastelands. But most of the dialogue in the 30 minutes of Tales I saw (probably a 60/40 cutscene/game split) was clever without really being funny. Some of the other dialogue tried hard for for funny, but fell flat. Only a few lines and visual gags really made me laugh. There was a lot of exposition, which didn't help I can see the game doling out jokes at a more comfortable pace once its main cast of characters are established.



Despite how much this looks like Borderlands, Tales doesn't much feel like Borderlands, because the jokes and gags come at Telltale's measured pace, without the manic speed of Gearbox's kid-in-a-joke-store delivery. Surprisingly for a game set on Pandora, I think storytelling, and not comedy, will be the real strength of Tales from the Borderlands. I shouldn't be surprised by that at this point it's Telltale but I was anyway, because this is a very different type of storytelling for them.

Tales will divide its time between two protagonists: Fiona, a grifter I didn't see much of, and Rhys, a cocksure Hyperion suit working his way up the corporate ladder. The "Tales" in the title are actually tall tales, as Fiona and Rhys prove to be unreliable narrators talking up their past adventures. At one point, Rhys punches a man in the chest and rips out his heart, only to have Fiona interject with a sarcastic "That's totally not what happened." Then she provides her point of view.

This is where player choice plays a big role. In this scene, Fiona's perspective brings up four dialogue options, and each one will affect how the overarching story plays out. The idea that both characters are making up embellished stories, none of which are the proper "truth," is an absolutely perfect approach to the Borderlands world.

Instead of brawling like Bigby Wolf, Rhys can call in a Hyperion robot to fight for him.

The QTE action scenes are as minimally interactive as ever, and the comedy doesn't feel quite on, but the storytelling is as good as ever. Telltale also seems deeply devoted to mining the Borderlands lore for cool characters and backstory, which is something I didn't know I cared about until today. Gearbox throws out so many jokes, it's easy to forget that there's a pretty cool sci-fi world underneath the pile of screaming psycho midgets. Tales is a reminder that there's more to Borderlands than guns and humor.

Telltale aims to release Tales from the Borderlands this Autumn at the same $25 per season, with new episodes coming out "roughly monthly."

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The only thing potentially sillier than this Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel trailer would be the expectation that it would be anything other than silly. As you watch, you'll hover on a knife's edge between thinking "this is brilliant," and "this is genuinely the worse thing that I've ever seen, and everybody involved should be arrested." Which way will you fall? There's only one way to find out...



No, I'm still not sure.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel takes place between first and second games, and is also set on the moon. If that sounds like something that would interest you, listen to Tim and Evan discuss what they've seen of the game, read our interview with Randy Pitchford, or just play Borderlands 2 again while imagining it has less gravity.

If you'd rather see a (slightly) more informative trailer for the game, you'll find last week's Handsome Jack teaser below.



Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is due out on October 17th

When Irrational Games closed earlier this year many assumed it would mark the end of the BioShock series. While critically adored, 2013 s BioShock Infinite did not attract the astronomical sales figures video game publishers expect nowadays. But according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, a future for the series has not been ruled out. In fact, during an address at the Cowen and Company analyst conference last week, attended by Gamespot, he explicitly stated that the future of the series lay in the hands of 2K Marin.
"We haven't given any colour on how you should think about yet except we do believe it's beloved. We think it's important certainly something that we're focused on; something 2K Marin will be responsible for shepherding going forward.
I think there's a lot of upside in that franchise," Zelnick continued. "It hasn't necessarily been realised yet. And the question for the future, assuming we decide to answer the question, would be 'How do you stay true to that creatively?'; 'How do you do something exciting?'; and 'How do you do expand the market?'. That would be the natural drill. We're starting from a good point on it. And certainly it's been a great piece of business for us; it's been a profitable piece of business."
Zelnick also commented on Take-Two s strongest performing IPs: Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto and Borderlands. While there s still no news on whether Rockstar will release PC editions of Red Dead Redemption or Grand Theft Auto 5, Zelnick did say that both were permanent franchises: evidence enough that a Red Dead Redemption sequel will appear one of these days.
He also took an opportunity to engage in one of the video game world s favourite pastimes: sledging Duke Nukem Forever. Noting that Take-Two s success rate is unusually high due to their careful approach to nurturing IPs, Zelnick admitted that Duke Nukem Forever was a mistake.
"We have a really high hit ratio. It's probably not realistic to believe it could be much higher than it is, he said.
We've had precious few flops. And at least, of the few I can think of - and I can think of a few, sadly - at least one of them was just a misguided decision on my part, which was Duke Nukem.

Pandora is Borderland's primary globular playground, but why should one celestial body get all the fun? Spanning the time between the first and second games, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel sends us to the dusty crags and canyons of Pandora's moon, home of that giant H-shaped Hyperion mothership and the stage for Handsome Jack's rise to CEO overlord. We've seen it in action, and now you can as well with a lengthy playthrough tour video from co-developers 2K Australia and Gearbox.

The highlight of the video is seeing how Borderlands' chaotic battles play out on a planet weak in gravity and without any atmosphere. Keeping enough oxygen for jump boosts and stomping heads looks either very tedious or very simple; the developers want oxygen to be a fun method for achieving stunts impossible on Pandora, but I'm not sure how fun finding breathable air will be while trying to fend off swarms of charging madmen.

A couple of Pre-Sequel's new classes and their abilities also get the spotlight, including the Gladiator's damage-soaking shield disc and the Enforcer aka the cyborg Wilhelm from Borderlands 2 trading arms and legs for metal equivalents. The new cryo- and laser-type weapons also appear, as well as a brief glimpse at rideable hoverbikes, a giant Hyperion death-laser, and the playable Claptrap who everyone will probably pick at least once.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel releases this fall. Have a look at the video below, and be sure to check out Tim's thoughts as well.

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You'd think that with the success of Borderlands 2, Gearbox would already be hard at work on Borderlands 3, but that isn't the case. "I'm not going to fuck around with you like Valve does with Half-Life 3," Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford told Polygon. "We know we want it and we know it should exist, but we don't know what it is yet."

You have to appreciate the honesty. It's not like we won't get another Borderlands it's just too early at this stage for Gearbox to talk about it in any concrete way. Loosely speaking, Pitchford added that he knows that the game should be "next-gen" and "probably crazy multi-platform." He also said that it should be bigger and better than Borderlands 2, and follow up Borderlands 2's story. That's certainly what we're expecting given the future beyond planet Pandora that's hinted at in the end of Borderlands 2.

Pitchford did imply, however, that more Borderlands things are afoot at Gearbox, even if the developer hasn't begun work on a fully fledged sequel. "We are doing things in Borderlands that we'll announce soon, that are good, and that I think people will be really excited about if you love the franchise," he said. There's also Telltale Games' Tales from the Borderlands, expected to release in 2014.

Aside from Borderlands, Pitchford said that Gearbox is working on two, yet-to-be-revealed games, unrelated to existing franchises. And this on top of its Furious Four, another Brothers in Arms game, remastered editions of both Homeworlds and Homeworld: Shipbreakers.

As we reported yesterday, Sir Hammerlock Versus the Son of Crawmerax will be the last piece of DLC for Borderlands 2. We also have some ideas of our own about what we want from Borderlands 3.

It's going to be hard to say goodbye, but 2K has announced that Sir Hammerlock Versus the Son of Crawmerax will be the last piece of DLC for Borderlands 2. Set to release via Steam on April 15, this fifth Headhunter pack will sell for $3.

Sir Hammerlock Versus the son of Crawmerax adds a new area to the game, a tropical island vacation spot called Wam Bam Island. You'll journey across the island, putting bullets in things, collecting loot, and eventually face Crawmerax Jr., son of the great crab worm from The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC for the original Borderlands. Crawmerax Jr. "is seeking vengeance on Lilith, Brick and Mordercai for brutally defeating his father over and over again," 2k said on its blog. "You must fight him off without their help so, you may want to call some friends to help you out with this one."

Borderlands 2 was released in September 2012 and has since received a steady stream of additional content. You can get the base game from Steam from for $20, or the Game of the Year edition for $40, which also includes all the DLC that was part of the games' Season Pass. Gearbox has done a great job of supporting the game after launch, so there is also a ton of content you can buy beyond that.

The Horrible Hunger of the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler. That is certainly some title, and I hope the second in Borderlands 2's Headhunter DLC series lives up to it. The head you're hunting this time is that of the Wattle Gobbler, who as you may have guessed...is a giant Thanksgiving turkey. It's the second seasonally appropriate boss arena after Halloween's TK Baha's Bloody Harvest - leaving Santa or possibly a really angry Dreidel as likely candidates for How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day, the game's next mini DLC. New boss fight/arena aside, Wattle Gobbler will also introduce you to Mr. Torgue's Grandma Flexington, who Gearbox are referring to as "super buff". As you can see in the screenshot below...they're kinda right.



The Horrible Hunger of the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler releases November 26th in the US, and on the 29th in Europe and Australia. It will set you back $2.99/£2.39/€2,99.

Borderlands 2's Game of the Year Edition only came out a few weeks ago, but Gearbox and 2K have already revealed another round of downloadable content. I'm beginning to suspect they may have a problem, but before we organise an intervention - I'll do the bunting - it would only be polite to hear them out. The Headhunter add-on series comprises a bunch of small new missions tasking you with taking down an area boss and claiming their head. The first, TK Baha's Bloody Harvest, is appropriately Halloweeny and lands next Tuesday.

Bloody Harvest reintroduces Borderlands 1's TK Baha, now a festering corpse (though still able to dish out and reward quests, impressively). He'll direct you to the Pumpkin Kingpin’s pumpkin patch, where you'll confront said Kingpin and hopefully leave with his delicious head. There's also a lot of "augmented candy" all over the place, which will provide temporary buffs to your character.



The other Headhunter packs haven't been revealed yet, but TK Baha's Bloody Harvest lands next Tuesday on Steam (for both PC and Mac), and will set you back only $2.99/£2.39.

Gearbox and 2K Games have announced a new community contest for Borderlands 2, and they’re giving away prizes and cash to gamers who jump back into Pandora and blow up its inhabitants. A total of $100,000 in prizes, including a $50,000 cash prize, will be awarded to Vault Hunters who log on and take down designated targets.



Prizes include headsets from Turtle Beach, an Nvidia Shield, graphics cards and sweet, sweet cash. The prizes will be assigned by raffle tickets, and players can enter up to four times a day by killing the four daily targets. In addition to earning an entry in the raffle, daily targets will drop super-powered loot 100% of the time. The daily targets will continue from October 11 to November 7. Note that the contest is for American players only.

If you haven’t played Borderlands 2 much since last fall, it’s time to dust off your Eridian-barreled machine gun full of acid bullets (that explodes when you reload it) and start killing things. If you’ve somehow missed Borderlands 2’s stellar series of DLC, the Borderlands 2 Game of the Year edition lands on October 8—the timing of which is entirely coincidental, I’m sure.